Sundance: Family Drama ‘A Little Prayer’ Features a Standout Jane Levy

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

It’s common for films to explore parent-child relationships, but not as often are they about the dynamic between a parent and his child’s spouse, particularly if said child is still alive and around. In that way, A Little Prayer is an odd specimen, since its primary characters are Bill (David Stathairn), a veteran who runs a business with his son David (Will Pullen), and his daughter-in-law, David’s wife Tammy (Jane Levy), who may just be the most selfless, accommodating person in the world…

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Review: "In the Heights" sets the bar high for modern movie musicals

by Nathaniel R

A young man stares out of his bodega window, his favourite block coming alive in the reflection. This shot of Usnavi, our leading man and guide into the film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights is already beloved and with good reason. It gives you character (this man is something of a dreamer, caught between two places), world-building (the vibrant Latinx community of Washington Heights) and joyful genre specificity (the musical). It's not even the first clever moment in the movie at that, but something In the Heights builds up in its ever-escalating opening number after already providing you with gorgeous aerial shots romanticizing NYC as 'a city made of music', sounds from hoses, traffic, manhole covers, and alarm clocks as musical accompaniment, and introducing us to most of the main characters.

Above all else this visual beat as well as the larger song sequence that contains it, instills immediate confidence that the creative team, especially director Jon M. Chu (of Crazy Rich Asians fame) understand the oft-forgotten cinematic language of the film musical...

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